Hardwood surface/face planing question
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- This topic has 11 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 7 years ago by SPowers.
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Not sure if anyone else ever has this issue but I often have a challenge face/surface planing boards–notably hardwoods. From watching Paul, (and watching him effortlessly plane the face of boards), I know the proper way is to start at the front and work back. However, I will often find that, no matter how sharp my plane is or how much the iron is protruding, that I can have a very hard time getting the plane to grip and shave anything off–sometimes I feel like I’m just polishing the surface. Now, I could start closer to the rear of the board and confidently feel that my iron will grab the end/end grain but that is wrong technique and I don’t believe it ensures that I am actually improving the surface/making it flat.
Is there something I’m doing incorrectly? Am I putting too much weight on certain parts of the plane? I’d think I wouldn’t really need to bare down much at all and that the cutting iron would naturally catch the wood but for whatever reason it just seems like I get a lot of “empty” strokes.
And as the title implies, I find this to be an issue for me with hardwoods (maple, rosewood, ash, etc) vs. softwoods so I have just assumed there was something about the hardwood grain being resistant to the initial cut. Maybe I should skew the blade more?
Anyway, if that made sense and anyone has any pointers/techniques, I’d love to hear them. Edge planing is simple and end-grain on the shooting board is pretty straight forward. But for some reason face planing the boards still gives me challenges.
Thanks,
David13 January 2017 at 10:21 pm #158628I remember Paul Sellers talk about an unwanted bevel on the back of the blade, that is created while honing. This bevel causes the blade to ride over flat wood rather than dig in. Try the Q&A videos, I think it was there.
I think, normal practise is to register the toe of the sole with the surface when starting. But you probably knew that already.
Dieter
Yes common enough problem, often due to from your plane sharpness, or lack of, but coud be the strop technique, which i had issues with for a while until learning to pull straight back like Paul shows. Id watch the plane set up and sharpening video again. Squirrely grain also can present a problem but that is the rare occasion, ,in which case you turn to the cabinet scraper. Ive had this issue, and for me ‘my idea’ of sharp was not sharp enough, so i watched the sharpening videos here/youtube many times to adjust my technique.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by BrianJ.
I am having the same issue with American Yello Poplar. Which is not even a hard wood.
Having sharpened the blade to the point that it can cut my fingers quite easily, I have then set up the blade in the plane and on my test piece I am taking off even shavings with no problem. It then glides over the piece I am working on although it is taking 0,3mm shavings off of the test piece.I actually found that with larger surface areas, it may be something as simple as needing to set the iron a bit more aggressively for the first layer of planing–I think this is because with a larger surface area, any small bumps or surface imperfections will cause the plane to be above the cutting surface (whereas edge planing is just a thin strip of wood, the entire face will have more high/low spots that need to be planed off before the surface itself is smooth enough to cut in a single pass with a fine set.
You might want to double check that the iron is bedding correctly with the frog. I had a similar problem, I bought an old stanley 4 1/2, cleaned it up and when I planed cherry or alder it worked like a dream. I started a project with oak and it just skated over the surface. It basically did nothing until I extended the blade to the point it would gouge. I eventually realized that a previous owner had replaced the lateral adjuster and the new rivet protruded and held the iron slightly off the frog changing blade angle by a very small amount.
It was just a fraction off but it rendered the plane useless on oak.
5 March 2017 at 7:11 pm #309803This video and the second part might help you a bit:
It is mostly about why this company does not make low angle bevel up planes, but the explanation is quite helpful to understand, how blades work, while being dulled in the process.
Dieter
The video also refers to this website, where you can get a more detailed explanation about blade wear and the consequences: http://www.bladetest.infillplane.com/html/wear_profiles.html
- This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by Hugo Notti.
A question and a rarer possible cause, can you surface plane softwoods? If so it is probably the bevel being just barely out of wack. You may also have an issue I have had on an old number 4. Seems the previous owner used it almost exclusively for edge planing generating a very slight hollow in the bottom. It still planed edges with a very fine setting, but it would take so much blade protrusion on surfaces wider than the plane it often end up not cutting at all. Solution was to carefully flatten the sole of the plane.
If you can plane softwood surfaces, then definitely check the beveling with a straight edge against the bottom of the plane and see how if just the edge or edge and bevel tough the straigh edge.
16 March 2017 at 8:39 pm #310227I found another reason for the plane not biting in all places: Harder wood compresses less than soft wood, so even small high spots can lift the blade. If you have individual areas, where the plane doesn’t cut, it might be a not so flat spot nearby.
Anyway, it seems that most of the time, it is the bevel and edge of the iron, especially dullness, and the condition of the wood. Even if presented at an odd angle, a sharp edge (not blade!) will cut, whenever it reaches wood.
Dieter
14 April 2017 at 1:18 am #311082I’ve had the same issue for two different reasons – one was my bevel was between 35 – 45 degrees which causes it to bite into the wood a lot less readily, if at all. So I’d double check you’re sharpening to 30 degrees or even maybe slightly less. The other reason is just general blunting of the edge as far as I can tell – if you hold a freshly sharpened plane blade, bevel down at a 45 degree angle against your thumb or finger nail, it should really grab and not slide along. After planing for some time, try this again and it will be more readily slide across your nail. This shows me I need to re-sharpen. When planing oak I have to re-sharpen very often. Unless you have some kind of amazing steel I guess resharpening all the time isn’t just what you have to do for good planing.
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